Brands making unhealthy foods will be able to avoid the government’s junk food advertising ban if their ads do not feature products that break the rules.

From October 2025, foods high in fat or sugar will not be able to be advertised on television or in paid online advertising before 9pm.

But the restrictions in the new rules, which aim to tackle childhood obesity, will only apply to products identifiable in advertising.

This means, for example, that ads for fast food chains won’t face restrictions unless they include products like burgers or fries.

The new ban has been introduced using powers in the Health and Social Care Act 2022 passed by Boris Johnson’s government, which has focused on the products.

Government figures show that more than one in five children in England are overweight or obese by the time they start primary school. By the time he leaves it becomes more than one in three.

Speaking when the new rules were published on Tuesday, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said obesity “deprives our children of the best possible start in life, sets them up for lifelong health problems, and costs the NHS billions Is”.

“This government is now taking action to end the targeting of junk food advertising to children, both on TV and online,” he said.

Under the ban, advertisements will face a ban if a product falls into one of 13 categories and is also classified as “less healthy”. government scoring systemAfter analyzing its nutrients including salt, fat, sugar and protein.

Katherine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, a group for health campaigners, had argued for brands to be included in the ban, and said she would like companies to respond by making their products healthier.

“That would be the ideal thing, but they can get away with it just by showing the brand and it’s not clear what impact that would have, even on top of what we’ve already got,” he said.

“We are very supportive of (restrictions) being implemented as planned, but in the future I think we would like to see where loopholes can be closed,” he said.

Some food and beverage brands are already creating advertisements that do not feature their products, both on TV and social media, despite any restrictions.

Vic Banham, who runs TikTok marketing agency Antler Social, says some of this may not even count as advertising.

“There are a lot of ads running that don’t focus on food, but they are still promoting their name in a smart way,” he said.

“I would describe it as organic content, the opposite of advertising as we know it. They have the opportunity to reach a huge number of people of all ages and backgrounds”.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the ban would include “unhealthy food products that contain excessive amounts of sugar, fat or salt”.

“This advertising ban does not restrict brands from advertising provided any product offered by them meets the prescribed conditions,” he said.